Karns City Football Hopes to End Their Season with a Championship Win

by Jake DeLuca

The Karns City Gremlins have been a consistent winner for over a decade, in fact since 2006 the Gremlins have compiled a 109-29 overall record under Head Coach Ed Conto – this year was no different as Karns City finished the season 8-2.

This Saturday the Gremlins will travel to Clarion University to take on the Perry Academy Commodores (4-6) in the Division 8-9 Class 3A Championship.

The Gremlins top record in the conference earned them a first week bye which gave Karns City the opportunity to rest a couple of key players. Though a bye week would be welcomed by many teams heading into the playoffs, Conto explained some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a bye in the playoffs.

“We had some kids who were banged up who didn’t play against Clearfield so they got a chance to rest. I don’t like a bye week personally, because I didn’t think we had a real taxing schedule and I thought we could use some more work. We went and played Clearfield and played pretty well even though we lost. We played very physical and hard we just didn’t have some players in the secondary and made some turnovers. So (the bye week) gives us a chance to rest some kids and go back and work on things that popped up (against Clearfield),” Conto explained.

This season Karns City beat up on a lot of their competition as their offense rushed for a combined 2,900 yards and the passing attack picked up 1,300 yards making the Gremlins quite daunting to face. On top of piling up the yardage Karns City averaged 40.4 points per game.

Conto explained the benefits of having a balanced offense.

“ I think what (a balanced offense) does is make (defenses) stay honest. I think any good defensive player wants to be able to take something away and it’s a little easier to prevent something if you know you only have to defend this. There’s two things there that the kids have to play more cautious, they can’t cut loose too much because they may get burnt on a play. So (a balanced offense) does effect defenses.”

On top of having a high powered offense the Gremlins have a stout defense that has only allowed 11 points per game in the regular season and recovered 16 fumbles and intercepted 9 passes on their way to the championship game.

The Commodores head into this Saturday’s game as the clear underdogs after posting just a 4-6 record, but Gremlins Head Coach Ed Conto knows Perry Academy cannot be taken lightly.

“What (Perry Acadamey) has, they are very athletic, they have good size, and they have good speed. They seem to be, I call it organized chaos. For whatever reason on defense I have no idea what they’re doing. All the sudden they are all up on the line of scrimmage and coming and forcing mistakes. They must feel comfortable in their athletes that they can cover for that. The thing I see is that they aren’t super disciplined and they are more individualistic so we have to come together as a team to deal with their athletes.”

The championship will take place at 7:00 PM at Clarion University on Saturday, November 10.

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